Santa at Macy's

We took the kids to downtown Macy's this week to walk through the 8th floor auditorium show and to see Santa.  Ben and the girls liked the lights and all the moving elves, trees, etc.  What the girls did NOT like is Santa.  We tried to back them onto Santa's lap as was suggested to get a picture before they saw him but they were too smart and knew something was up!  Ben did great, he waited until the girls were off his lap then told Santa what he wanted, they chatted for awhile.  I did overhear Santa asking Ben if he eats his fruits and vegetables.  He told Ben that strawberries were his favorite because they are red!

Ben checkin out the view from Uncle Nic's office

Macy's

Ben looking at one of the displays at Macy's

Girls not diggin Santa



Ben's turn and he liked Santa

Telling Santa what trains he wanted for Christmas

Play date with cousins

We had a fun play date with Chris's cousin and their daughter Brynn.  The kids all played together and we kept trying to get a picture of them all together and finally succeeded when we gave them snacks!!  It was so good to see you guys, hope we can do it again soon!

Holidazzle Parade

We took the kids downtown to the Holidazzle last weekend.  We ate dinner at Macy's before the parade and then headed out to the Nicolett mall for the parade.  Ben loved it and the girls seemed to enjoy the lights too!

Daddy and Samantha sharing dinner

Happy to be eating out (he says he likes restaurants)

Getting a better view

The girls all bundled up for the parade!

The big tree in the lobby of daddy's office building

Ben's Christmas Program at Preschool

Ben's Christmas Program at Westwood Preschool was last week.  He loves singing and I had heard him practicing his songs for weeks.  He did pretty good for the first few songs then I think the lights and loud music started bothering him (and the little girls next to him telling him what to do :) and he sat down for some songs.  He is still singing the songs around the house everyday!

Ring around the Rosey

Family fun in the snow

Ben has been asking for snow so he could go sledding and since we finally got it this weekend we had to take all the kids outside.  It was the girls first experience in the snow and they seemed to love it!  I took tons of pictures and it was hard to choose so I posted a lot of them :)

The two girls all bundled up!

Oooooh baby it's cold outside!

Ben sledding down our front yard, perfect sledding hill for a 3 year old!

Crash landing at the bottom, but he wanted to do it again 2 seconds later!

All 3 kiddos in the sled!!

Ben and daddy going down together, faster and further than Ben went by himself

Allison loved the sled, anytime I tried to take her out she started throwing a tantrum!

Samantha, cruising down the slide faster than usual in her snow pants.  She loved it!

Samantha getting in on the downhill sledding.

Both Samantha and Ben have their eyes closed, they got a little snow spray at the bottom of the hill

Pulling them back up the hill for another run!

New Camera = Better Pictures

We took advantage of the holiday sales and finally got an SLR camera.  I have been playing with it for only a day now and LOVE it.  I can actually catch them looking and smiling!  Should have gotten it when Ben was born and you all would have seen much better pictures on this Blog!  I am excited we got it before the holiday, so hopefully I can get some really good Christmas pictures this year!  Here are just a few I took yesterday..... look for more soon :)

3 Years Old!!!

Ben turned 3 on Thanksgiving this year and we had his birthday party on the Sunday before.  The theme was Thomas the Train....his favorite character for most of 2011.  He went shopping with me and helped me pick out the cake, balloons, plates, etc.  We celebrated earlier in the week at preschool and he picked out M&M cookies to bring to school so it was like a week long celebration for him :)  I think his favorite part was the cake.....he must have asked me 15 times during his party if it was time for the cake yet ;)

Some Thomas the train gifts of course...

A little "help" from the girls

LOVES opening gifts :)

This gift had a lot of tissue paper in the bag and a singing card he loved

Blowing out his 3 candles

and enjoying the cake, especially the frosting!

Friends Thanksgiving 2011

Our annual Friends Thanksgiving was the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  We seem to have some bad luck with the weather, the last two years it has snowed but everyone made it safely again this year!  The kids had lots of fun playing together.  Ben had a blast checking out someone elses cars, trains, and trucks!  We set all the kids up at a table together and by the time we finished getting them food, helping them.....they were off and running and we finally got to sit down and eat and chat a bit together!  It was fun that the girls were not babies this year and could participate in the fun!

Getting the Thanksgiving spread ready!

Boys playing cars and trucks (that is Ben by the fireplace)

Some of the kids eating....there were more kids at the table in the background including the girls

the girls having their first Thanksgiving meal!

Battle scars

I mentioned the kids have been getting a little rough with each other.  In particular Ben lately.....his not listening also applies to being gentle/no pushing the girls and here is the result.  Poor Allison, but she rebounds very well.

The shiner under her eye has been there over a week now.  Of course we had pictures during that time....luckily our photographer can edit it out!

Bad picture but scuffed up nose and chin :(



The girls playing on the steps together